Media from Texas, USA released a new video in which multiple armed police officers are seen waiting in a corridor of two classrooms of the school in the town of Uvalde, where the shooting occurred in which 19 students and two teachers died last May 24.
The officers would have waited about an hour, despite the fact that the doors were apparently never closed, according to the Austin Statesman newspaper and the KVUE-TV channel , which published the images on Monday night, June 20.
Multiple officers were inside Robb Elementary School with rifles and at least one ballistic shield at 11.52am (local time) on the day of the shooting, new video and other evidence shows . They did not enter the classroom for another 58 minutes,” said investigative journalist Tony Plohetsk, who works for both outlets.
The images add to the complaints of parents who, from the day of the massacre, begged the agents to enter the school and have since questioned the authorities’ delay in doing so.
The investigations indicate that at least 77 minutes passed between the entrance of the author of the shooting, Salvador Ramos, 18, and his death, shot by the officers.
Investigators believe that Ramos could not have locked the classroom door.
The officers in the hallway wanted to immediately enter rooms 111 and 112, which were interconnected, and even had an officer’s daughter, but it was unclear who was in charge.
Ramos was able to enter the school without problems with an AR-15 rifle after shooting his grandmother in the face at her residence.
A special agent who arrived on the scene, about 20 minutes after the initial deployment, asked the policemen: “Do you know if there are children there?” And he added: “If there are children there, we should go in there.”
“Whoever is in charge will determine it,” was the response he had, detailed this Tuesday, June 21, the Texas Tribune.
After that comment, nearly another hour passed before a Border Patrol tactical team broke down the classroom doors and killed the gunman.
Authorities have shared conflicting information about who was in charge, who confronted the shooter, and when.
In the midst of the controversy is the police chief of the Uvalde schools, Pete Arredondo, who assured that the doors were indeed closed and waiting for a master key.